‽istis ponders
version control and roof-reading (weekending April 20th 2024)
This
week ‽istis has been wrestling with amending, updating, re-writing and adding
to various documents. The multiple tweaks and re-edits of one’s own ‘stuff’ has
been joined by tech-enabled/tech-compexified collaborative editing with others;
at a distance; asynchronously; with different styles…
Editing,
reviewing, viewing? Comments, replies? Accepted, declined? Auto- save, Save As?
Draft v 4, Draft v 23, Final Draft, Final Final Draft, Final Final Draft v 2…‽
And so, this
weekending ‽istis is pondering version control and proof-reading and, given
some interruptions, is now on ‘v 7’ of this latest blog-offering…
As is often
the case when exploring a new-ish topic, a wonderful world of terms has opened
up[i]:
· Dittography: repetition of a word, seemingly following a momentary momentary distraction
· Homoeoteleuton (various spelling available, deliberate or accidental!): which can lead to copied text missing a section as the scribe goes back to another, later, version of the same word or a similar ending word - and then continues from there
· Homeoarchy: eye-skip because of the similarity of the beginnings of two lines.
· Shelf-marking: source text returned to the shelf at the end of a long day; the new manuscript marginalia marked with a source document shelf reference so that it can be found next day; wrong reference; different source text fetched from the stacks; a new hybrid manuscript emerges – a mediaeval mash-up
· Manuscript descent: and a Darwinian decomposition or recomposition species-tree of manuscripts is traced back across generations of perhaps tired, careless, mischievous, over-worked, underpaid, bored scribes?
Sins of
omission, addition, transposition or alteration may need confession at Matins
or Vigils, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext[ii],
None, Vespers or Compline…[iii]
So ‽istis got
to thinking: what if some of some of[iv]
the documents that affect our lives have been miscopied or mis-edited or if it was the non-‘final-final-v-2’ that got signed and sent out in to the world?
What if quotations or numbers had been mis-recorded? What might documents or reports of
conversations, the declarations or ‘famous’ lines have said differently? What might
the records now say if you or I could copy them out again?
…as ever, you might like to ponder and add your own.· The last Conservative Party manifesto? (maybe they didn’t actually mean to do these things…?)
· Shall I compare Thee to a winter’s day…?
· We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all are equal…[v]
· Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem, set forth in part III of this plan, shall come into existence in Palestine… in the not-foreseeable-future…[vi]
· I am just one of the ways, a truth and a light…[vii]
· I wandered lonely as a sheep…
· E = mc3
· 48% for leaving the EU, 52% against leaving[viii]
· “Not guilty”[ix]
· “I have a nightmare…”[x]
· For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.[xi]
· “Houston, everything’s fine!”[xii]
· “Well actually, I think that’s very funny!” the Queen was reported to have said…[xiii]
©‽istis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this
week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on X/Twitter with replies,
retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very
opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders.
X/Twitter ‘follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue
welcome...
[i]
References include: https://faculty.goucher.edu/eng330/how_do_mistakes_enter_manuscript.htm#:~:text=The%20most%20subtle%20kind%20of,excoriate%20in%20marginalia%20lamenting%20their
& https://www.thoughtco.com/homoioteleuton-figure-of-sound-1690933
& https://sites.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/ms-course/course/scbl-err.htm
[ii]
(The mischievous scribe might have been tempted to put ‘sex’ here; but that
would have been a very different type of service… With apologies; couldn’t resist!)
[iv]
Not an example of dittography – that is indeed what I meant to type…
[v]
And the world re-calibrates with universal equality and no reliance on an ultimate
‘other’, an external Creator…
[vi]
From UN General Assembly Resolution 181: https://web.archive.org/web/20171010090147/https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/7F0AF2BD897689B785256C330061D253
[vii]
John 14 v 6, perhaps at the mercy of an aberrant polytheistic, universalistic monk…
[viii]
The UK’s European referendum result, 2016
[ix]
Thinking of Socrates and maybe others… and
vice versa… https://www.bestattorney.com/blog/top-77-most-famous-trials-in-history/
[x]
Not Martin Luther King. https://wavebox.io/knowhow/the-50-most-famous-quotes-of-all-time/
[xi]
Luke 18 v 25, oh… hang on, isn’t that
what it says‽
